Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
In 1966, as the investigative journalist Wayne Barrett detailed in “Trump: The Greatest Show on Earth,” a New York legislative committee accused Fred Trump of using state money earmarked for middle-income housing to build a shopping center instead. One lawmaker called Mr. Trump “greedy and grasping.” By this point, the Trump organization’s business practices were…
The NYC real estate market continues to squeeze both renters and buyers, yet vacant storefronts still plague even so-called “trendy” neighborhoods. There are several frustrating reasons for all of this conspicuous urban blight, which is one of the reasons why freelance developer Justin Levinson has assembled a comprehensive map of all the vacancies around Manhattan,…
Kate Downing, a member of the Palo Alto Planning and Transportation Commission, has resigned in protest at its no-growth policies. She writes: After many years of trying to make it work in Palo Alto, my husband and I cannot see a way to stay in Palo Alto and raise a family here. We rent our…
Twitter Inc. has listed 183,642 square feet of space in its Mid-Market headquarters for sublease, according to marketing materials and a source familiar with the property, as the company struggles to compete for advertisers and user growth has slowed. The social media company (NYSE: TWTR), which is San Francisco’s second-largest tech employer, has an immediate 78,792-square-foot availability at…
Overseas buyers are now retreating from the US home market, thanks to slackening world economies, higher home prices, and a strong dollar. This week the National Association of Realtors released its annual report on international buying. It found that together, resident and non-resident foreigners invested $102.6 billion in the US home market between April 2015…
Height – 1536 | Width – 2048 Photo: Bloomberg Donald Trump is the only billionaire in the city to get a middle-class tax break. Earlier this year, Crain’s reported that Donald Trump received a property-tax break for middle-class New Yorkers. That revelation raised questions about just how wealthy the presumptive GOP presidential nominee really…
Airbnb Inc., the second-most highly valued San Francisco-based startup, sued its hometown over claims the city’s rental restrictions violate protections for internet companies and its free-speech rights. The company is hoping to avoid thousands of dollars in daily fines it could face when a new San Francisco law takes full effect next month. The law,…
We want to study building new, better cities. The world is full of people who aren’t realizing their potential in large part because their cities don’t provide the opportunities and living conditions necessary for success. A high leverage way to improve our world is to unleash this massive potential by making better cities. It’s more…
Short-term rental companies like Airbnb are flooding New York City’s housing market, reducing available housing stock citywide by 10%, a new study has revealed. More than 55% of rooms or apartments listed on Airbnb in New York are illegal, according to the report, which is the result of research commissioned by two affordable housing advocacy…
One chilly afternoon in March, Michelle Malliett came home to her Mission district apartment to find a legal notice taped to her door. The notice gave her three days to move out of her two-bedroom apartment, an illegal in-law unit that she shares with her 17-year-old daughter. Her reaction? “I panicked,” she recalls. Malliett, 49,…